One word: Electability.

Among the people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but don’t approve of his job performance:

-Mitt Romney’s favorability is 32/31 (+1)

-Newt Gingrich’s is 32/40 (-8)

-Mike Huckabee’s is 20/39 (-19)

-Sarah Palin’s is 33/63 (-30)

Palin continues to be the most well liked of the leading 2012 contenders with GOP voters.

Palin’s obviously suffering from higher name recognition here. Most O voters already know her and hate her, whereas plenty don’t yet know and hate Mitt but surely would if/when he became the nominee. Interesting, though, that more people seem to know and like him than Huck despite the latter’s recurring presence on Fox. And really interesting that Newt fares relatively well despite his decades of baggage with the left. Second look at Gingrich’s appeal to centrists?

Speaking of disaffected Obama voters, another new PPP poll finds that an endorsement from The One makes a candidate seem more attractive to 32 percent of voters and less attractive to … 49 percent. That’s right on par with Palin, in fact, which suggests either that her brand’s doing better these days than the media would have you believe or that his is doing much, much worse. Good news, Democratic House incumbents: He’s ready to help.